THE
LAGUNA COPPERPLATE INSCRIPTION

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Very
little of what we know about the Philippines before the Spanish
invasion came from written records. Aside from some documents
in China that refer to the islands, there have only been a few
artefacts found in the Philippines that actually have writing
on them.

There was a clay pot found in Calatagan, Batangas, a small
strip of silver and an ivory seal, both found in Butuan, Agusan
del Norte, but until now, the writing on these objects has not
been reliably deciphered. There have also been several forged
documents over the years that have been exposed as fakes. And
even though Filipinos were writing with their own baybayin
script when the Spaniards arrived, no baybayin documents have
survived from before the Spanish era.

So, until recently, we have never had the chance to read the actual
words and thoughts of an ancient Filipino without the obscuring effects
of foreign interpretations, centuries of unreliable hearsay and even
outright lies and fabrications. That is, until a document was found
in 1989 that was written in a much older and more complex writing system
than the baybayin.

On that day in 1989, a man in the concrete business was
dredging sand at the mouth of the Lumbang River near Laguna de Ba’y
when he uncovered a blackened roll of metal. Usually he would just throw
away such junk, as it tended to get jammed in his equipment, but when
he unfurled the roll he saw that it was a sheet of copper with strange
writing on it, about the size of a magazine.

He offered the copper sheet to one of the antiques dealers
in the area who bought it for next to nothing. The dealer, in turn,
tried to sell it for a profit but when he found no buyers, he eventually
sold it to the Philippine National Museum for just 2000 pesos.

The Laguna Copperplate Inscription
Click on the picture for a modern transcription
and see how Filipinos spoke in the year 900.

In 1990, Antoon Postma, a Dutch expert in ancient Philippine
scripts and Mangyan writing, and a long-time resident of the Philippines,
translated the document that came to be known as the Laguna Copperplate
Inscription (LCI). When he saw that the writing looked similar to the
ancient Indonesian script called Kavi,
and that the document bore a date from the ancient Sanskrit calendar,
he enlisted the help of fellow Dutchman, Dr. Johann de Casparis, whose
area of expertise was ancient Indonesia.

Casparis confirmed that the script and the words used
in the Laguna document were exactly the same as those that were used
on the island Java at the time stated in the document, which was the
year 822, in the old Hindu calendar or the year 900 C.E. (Common Era)
on our calendar.

In 1996, a Filipino history buff in California, Hector
Santos, precisely converted the Sanskrit date over to our calendar by
using astronomical software and some historical detective work. He determined
that the Sanskrit date written on the plate was exactly Monday, April
21, 900 C.E.

In spite of the similarities to Javanese documents, the copper plate
had some peculiarities that led scholars to believe that it was not
from the island of Java. First: the LCI did not mention the king of
Java at that time, King Balitung. It was the custom at that time to
always mention the name of the king in official documents. Second: the
language used in the document was not only Sanskrit.
It was a mixture of Sanskrit, Old Javanese, Old Malay and Old Tagalog.
And third: the method of writing was different. At that time in Java
the characters were impressed into heated copper, but the characters
on the Laguna plate seemed to have been hammered into cold copper.

In his examination, Postma learned that the inscription was a pardon
from the Chief of Tondo that erased the debt of a man named Namwaran.
His debt was one kati and eight suwarna,
or about 926.4 grams of gold. Today in 2006, this is equal to about
$18,600 Canadian.

The document mentioned a few towns that still exist today: Tundun, which
is now Tondo in Metro Manila and three towns in Bulakan; Pailah or Paila,
Puliran or Pulilan, and Binwangan. A town in Agusan del Norte on Mindanao
called Dewata or Diwata also appears in the text. Diwata is near Butuan,
which has been a rich source of ancient artefacts. A place called Medang
was mentioned, too, which is possibly Medan in Sumatra, Indonesia. Also,
the name of Namwaran’s son was given as Bukah, a name that may
have some relation to the town of Gatbuka in Bulakan. Gat is a title
similar to “Sir” for a knight.

Places Mentioned
in the L.C.I.

So, because of the places mentioned in the text and because
of the plate’s differences to typical Indonesian documents, it
was Postma’s opinion that it was an inhabitant of the ancient
Philippines who made the LCI and that it was most likely not the work
of a hoaxer.

As is often the case, though, this discovery has raised
more questions than answers.
It is only one document but it seems to have revealed a widespread culture
with Hindu influences in the Philippines before the arrival of the Spaniards
and even before the Muslims. Did ordinary Filipinos share this culture
or were the people mentioned in the document just members of a small
ruling class of foreigners? Was their culture pushed out of the islands
when the Muslims arrived in the 12th or 13th century?

Did Filipinos once speak Sanskrit or was it reserved for important
documents written by an elite minority? There are certainly some Sanskrit
influences in Philippine languages but nobody was speaking it by the
time the Spaniards arrived.

And what happened to this Kavi style of writing? It was a far more
advanced and accurate way to write than the baybayin script that Filipinos
were using 500 years later. Perhaps only that elite minority used it
and so it disappeared with them.

Whatever the answers, it hints at some exciting discoveries to come
in the future.

The LCI in English

In 1994 Hector Santos asked me to write
a Filipino translation of the Laguna Copperplate Inscription. I wrote two.
The first was based on his English translation. The second was based on
his glossary, called the LCI Dictionary, and on my own research.
It closely followed the word order of the original document. My latest
translation (which can be seen in the Filipino
version this article) changed the sentence structure to make it
more readable. Here is my rough English translation of that Filipino version.

Long Live! Year of Siyaka
822, month of Waisaka, according to
astronomy. The fourth day of the waning moon, Monday. On this occasion,
Lady Angkatan, and her brother whose name is Buka, the children of the
Honourable Namwaran, were awarded a document of complete pardon from the
Commander in Chief of Tundun, represented by the Lord Minister of Pailah,
Jayadewa.

By this order, through the scribe, the
Honourable Namwaran has been forgiven of all and is released from his debts
and arrears of 1 katî and 8 suwarna
before the Honourable Lord Minister of Puliran, Ka Sumuran by the authority
of the Lord Minister of Pailah.

Because of his faithful service as a subject
of the Chief, the Honourable and widely renowned Lord Minister of Binwangan
recognized all the living relatives of Namwaran who were claimed by the
Chief of Dewata, represented by the Chief of Medang.

Yes, therefore the living descendants of
the Honourable Namwaran are forgiven, indeed, of any and all debts of the
Honourable Namwaran to the Chief of Dewata.

This, in any case, shall declare to whomever
henceforth that on some future day should there be a man who claims that
no release from the debt of the Honourable...

For more information about The Laguna Copperplate
Inscription, visit Hector Santos' web page at A
Philippine Leaf.